Storage cabinet for storing flat batches of male hygienic wipes

ABSTRACT

Storage cabinet for the storage of flat batches of male hygienic wipes, consisting of a potentially wall-mounted stationary component with a vertical rear plate and a rotating front panel and an accessible storage space between the two, with a central bottom aperture for dispensing the wipes one at a time, wherein the stationary component ( 2 ) has vertically oriented ribs ( 4, 5, 6 ) on the inside, with the narrow outside edges of at least the fins in the middle ( 4 ) parallel to each other and at an acute angle with the vertical, preferably between 6° and 25°, while the bottom plates ( 18, 19 ) of the stationary component ( 2 ) and the front panel ( 3 ), which are in the same plane, are perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to the above-mentioned edges, and the aperture mentioned ( 20 ) is formed by the central edges of the bottom plates ( 18, 19 ), and the bottom of the front panel ( 3 ) has hinge consoles ( 7, 8 ) connecting the front panel ( 3 ) to the stationary component ( 2 ).

The invention relates to a storage cabinet for the storage of flat batches of male hygienic wipes which may be attached to walls, featuring a vertical rear panel, a rotating front panel and an accessible storage space between the two, with a central bottom aperture for dispensing the wipes.

Storage of flat batches of wipes is usually required in traditional toilet-paper applications, but in recent times, those solutions have been replaced by dispensers for rolls.

There are some applications, however, primarily in the field of male hygiene, where flat wipes with dimensions slightly different to the traditional size are required. Such solutions are primarily required near the urinals of gents' toilets. In locations with high volumes of users, the batches required are larger than those generally in use for domestic purposes. The handling of interlocking batches of wipes that are relatively tall in comparison to depth has been quite difficult due to the risk of the batches falling apart.

A well-known solution for storing flat batches of wipes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 813,597, which was granted in 1906. In that solution, the batch is loaded into the storage space through a rectangular opening at the top whose bottom is spring tensioned, then the spring pressure is balanced in the open space above the wipes by two rollers with a gap between them, and at one end of the sheets of paper, a dispensing aperture was placed between two vertical plates at the top.

This solution is suitable for a large quantity of paper wipes, but loading the batch into the chimney-shaped space through the top opening is difficult and involves a heightened risk of the batch falling apart, while dispensing at the top is also uncomfortable and simply unsuitable for certain applications.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,438 is a rectangular box on which the side with the dispensing aperture can be moved vertically relative to the opposite, parallel side. The box needs to be rotated by 90° in order to load it with paper, then, after the front panel is replaced, the box can be rotated back to the normal orientation and paper can be taken once the box is rotated back from the vertical position to the front. This solution is not suitable for wall-mounted applications where there is no room for rotating the storage space or where there is only very limited space available. It has the further disadvantage of admitting only relatively low batches, while with taller batches, there is an elevated risk of the batch falling apart while loading the device.

Storage cabinets are already available for other storage applications, but their doors take up space to the side when open, while in some applications, the space around the sides may have to be left free or there may be other objects in the way.

It is a requirement with respect to solutions for batches consisting of interlocking leaves that the dispenser aperture should be centred, because the individual leaves in the batch alternately rotate by an angle of 180°, so if the aperture is offset to one side, it will dispense paper well in one direction, but not in the other.

In case of a centred aperture, opening around the bottom of the cabinet as the axis of rotation, i.e. rotation of the front panel towards the front and down appears to be theoretically impossible, because the batch needs to be loaded into the open cabinet, but due to the aperture being centred, the bottom part of the rear panel will not provide sufficient support for the batch.

The objective of the present invention is the production of a storage cabinet for the storage of flat batches of male hygienic wipes that may be opened without taking up any space to the side, which may be opened by tilting towards the front as comfortably as possible, but which is also suitable for the loading of batches that are taller than the depth of the batch in a simple manner, without any risk of the batch falling apart.

In order to solve the design problem we have recognised that the above, seemingly contradictory requirements can be met if the storage space is tilted slightly down and to the front, as in that case the centre of gravity of the batch will be supported securely, i.e. the bottom part of the stationary panel, though not as deep as the batch, will support the entire batch and consequently the front panel constituting the front of the storage cabinet will not have a support function until the cabinet is closed.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem we have designed a storage cabinet for the storage of flat batches of male hygienic wipers that can be wall mounted and whose front panel can be rotated relative to its stationary component which has a vertical rear panel, and which has an accessible storage space between those two components, with a centred aperture at the bottom to dispense the sheets at the bottom, and, according to the invention, the inside of the stationary component has vertical fins. The narrow outside edges of at least the fins in the middle are parallel and form an acute angle with the vertical, preferably between 6° and 25°, while the bottom plate of the stationary component is perpendicular, or approximately perpendicular to the outside edges of the above-mentioned fins, and the above-mentioned aperture is formed by a gap between the central edges of the bottom plates of the two components, and at the two edges of the bottom of the front panel there are hinged consoles connecting the front panel to the stationary component.

In order to achieve secure locking, the top side plate of the stationary component has a locking mechanism attached to it with a multi-part bolt, while the top plate of the front panel is fitter with holes accepting and locking the bolts in place opposite them.

In order to position the batch correctly to the side, the two side ribs are wider than the other, intermediate ribs, so as to support the batch from the sides.

Taking out paper and using the device can be rendered easier if the aperture is made wider at the centre.

Use is economical if the ratio of the height and the depth of the batch of wipes is greater than 1, preferably between 1.5 and 2.

It would be an advantageous design feature to include a narrow vertical window along the centre of the front panel to allow visual inspection of the amount of wipes left.

The invention will now be described in connection with preferable embodiments thereof, wherein reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1, shows the perspective view of the storage cabinet with the front panel half open

FIGS. 2 and 3 are perspective views like FIG. 1, taken from slightly different angles

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the storage cabinet with a batch of wipes loaded

FIG. 5 is a front view of the storage cabinet

FIG. 6 is a top-down section view of the storage cabinet with batch of wipes loaded

FIG. 7 is another top-down section view cut away slightly above the aperture

FIGS. 1-3 are perspective views of the storage cabinet that is the subject of the invention from different angles, with a partially open front panel. The storage cabinet forms the top part of a male hygienic wipe dispenser stand located adjacent to a urinal so that the storage cabinet unit 1 shown in the drawings is located at average male chest height, while its bottom is at hand or more precisely elbow height, and the total height of the storage cabinet 1 is 180-250 mm, while the external width is between 130 and 160 mm as required. The storage cabinet 1 consists of two main parts, namely the stationary component 2 and the tilting front panel 3. The stationary component 2 of the storage cabinet 1 is a plastic mould structure, which may form a single unit with the wall-mounted stationary component of the entire wipe rack.

When installed, the rear surface of the stationary component 2 is vertical and fixed to the wall. Around the storage cabinet 1 the stationary component 2 extends in curves to the front, defining two side walls that are almost perpendicular to the wall and a storage space between them. The interior of the stationary component 2 has a fixed number of narrow, vertical ribs 4 of which the two nearest the sides 5, 6 extend further out than the other ribs 4 that wall within the rear of the storage space, whose front edges have a support function (FIG. 7). The front edges of the ribs 4, 5, 6 are parallel to each other, but are at an acute angle to the wall with their width increasing top to bottom, while their angle with the vertical wall is 4-25°, or preferably 8-15°.

The interior of the stationary component 2 only defines the rear (somewhat larger) portion of the storage space of the storage cabinet 1, while the front part of the storage space is contributed by the interior of the front panel 3 which also has a U-shaped cross-section. At the bottom of the front panel 2, at the two sides there are two hinge consoles 7, 8 with a borehole in the end of each (not visible in the drawing), which are aligned with two other boreholes 9, 10 in the stationary component 2, which admit two hinge-pins 11, 12 from the outside, so that the front panel 3 can be rotated around the hinge-pins 11, 12 and locked against the stationary component 2. The unit is kept closed by the locking mechanism 13 attached to the top of the stationary component 2, which, in this example, has three upright bolts 14 which are caught flexibly in the holes 15 in the narrow top of the front panel 3 and keep the front panel 3 fixed in the closed position. The storage cabinet 1 can only be opened with a special tool 16 (FIG. 5) that has a head ending in pins in the same configuration as the bolts 14. The tool 16 is placed over the holes 15 and pushed down, which will unlock the bolts 14 from the holes 15, allowing the front panel 3 to be opened. Along the vertical centre-line of the front panel 3 there is a narrow window 17, which may be open or covered by transparent plastic or glass. The window 17 allows the quantity of paper in the storage cabinet 1 to be established by visual inspection. The storage space of the storage cabinet 1 is limited at the bottom by plates that are at right-angles to the supporting edges of the ribs 4, i.e. at a slight angle relative to the horizontal, of which base plate 18 is attached to the stationary component 2 while base plate 19 is attached to the front panel 3. There is an aperture of specific width 20 between the edges of base plates 18 and 19 (FIG. 7), which widens in curves towards the middle, making it easier to put the end of the paper in the cabinet through.

Turning to FIGS. 4-7, FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of the interior of the storage cabinet 1 and a batch of wipes placed in it 21. The batch 21 consists of interlocking leaves of paper, arranged in a manner similar to flat batches of toilet paper, i.e. when the bottom sheet in the batch is pulled out, the front edge of the next sheet is automatically pulled through the aperture 20, making it available for pulling out. The invented solution features wipes whose both dimensions are smaller than the traditional toilet-paper format while the height of the batch may be significantly larger, up to 2-4 times but preferably 1.5 to 2 times the depth of the batch. In order to load the batch 21, the front panel 3 is opened using the tool 16 as mentioned above and it is tilted down, which facilitates access to the rear of the storage space. The carefully held batch of paper 21 is placed in the storage space, so that the bottom part of the stationary component 2 supports half of the bottom of the batch 21. That support is sufficient to hold the entire batch 21 temporarily because, as described above, the storage space itself tilts back at an angle, so the centre of gravity will be over the bottom plate 18 of the stationary component 2. The batch 21 placed in the storage space will only be supported by the outside edges of the ribs 4 and they only contact the batch 21 over a small surface area, so as paper is consumed, the rest of the batch will slide down along the edges of the ribs without sticking or jamming. The batch 21 is supported from the sides by the two outside fins 5, 6. There is a gap between fins 5 and 6 and the stationary component, and the hinge consoles 7, 8 of the front panel 3 and the two hinge-pins 11, 12 fit into that gap at the bottom.

The tilted design and the ribbed support together allow an unusually tall batch 21 to be loaded into the storage space with a single movement, without any risk of falling out. After the front panel 3 is closed, the end 22 of the batch 21 of interlocking leaves extends from the aperture 20 so as to allow users standing alongside the storage cabinet 1 easy access and, due to the tilted bottom, the end of the paper ready for use 22 is visible and easy to find. The window 17 allows the operator to check whether more paper is required with a single glance.

The exterior appearance of the storage cabinet 1 that is the subject of the invention can be varied quite freely by the designer in accordance with applicable formal and aesthetic requirements while the interior remains the same. A large quantity of paper can be placed in the tilted storage space without any risk of catching or jamming during use. It is a great advantage of the solution that the cabinet can be opened very simply and comfortably and that the relatively large front panel 3 only occupies a minimal amount of adjoining space when open, indeed space around the sides is not required at all to open the unit, so the cabinet can be installed right alongside any partitions. 

1. Storage cabinet for the storage of flat batches of male hygienic wipes, consisting of a potentially wall-mounted stationary component with a vertical rear plate and a rotating front panel and an accessible storage space between the two, with a central bottom aperture for dispensing the wipes one at a time, characterised in that said stationary component (2) having vertically oriented ribs (4, 5, 6) on the inside, with the narrow outside edges of at least the fins in the middle (4) parallel to each other and at an acute angle with the vertical, preferably between 6° and 25°, while the bottom plates (18, 19) of the stationary component (2) and the front panel (3), which are in the same plane, are perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to the above-mentioned edges, and the aperture mentioned (20) is formed by the central edges of the bottom plates (18, 19), and the bottom of the front panel (3) has hinge consoles (7, 8) connecting the front panel (3) to the stationary component (2).
 2. The storage cabinet as claimed in claim 1, characterised by a locking mechanism (13) being attached to the top side plate of the stationary component (2), which has several bolts (14), with holes (15) that admit and lock onto the bolts (14) on the top of the front panel (3).
 3. The storage cabinet as claimed in claim 1, characterised by the two outside ribs (5, 6) being wider than those between them (4) so as to support the batch of paper from the sides.
 4. The storage cabinet as claimed in claim 1, characterised by the aperture (20) widening in a curved manner towards its centre.
 5. The storage cabinet as claimed in claim 1, characterised by allowing the ratio of the height and the depth of the batch of wipes exceeding 1, preferably in the range of 1.5 to
 2. 6. The storage cabinet as claimed in claim 1, characterised by a narrow window (17) included down the centre of the front panel (3) to allow visual inspection of the amount of paper inside. 